March 28/10 12:34 pm - Ghent-Wevelgem (brief)

Posted by Editoress on 03/28/10

HTC-Columbia's Bernhard Eisel blasted to victory in the Ghent-Wevelgem Classic on Sunday, outpowering five riders in a small group sprint. Eisel took off with the other breakaways before the usually decisive Kemmelberg climb. The Austrian then outsprinted them at the finish in Wevelgem for HTC-Columbia's second straight victory in one of Belgium's biggest Classics and top ProTour events.

"Bernie won it by two bike lengths," said HTC-Columbia sports director Tristan Hoffman. "The other guys tried everything they could to get rid of Bernie because they knew he would be the fastest if it came down to a sprint, but it just wasn't possible. HTC-Columbia had been on the front all day. Bernie and Marcel [Sieberg] and Matt [Goss] were all working away and keeping everything under control. There were some new climbs before the Kemmel, which we'd checked out and ridden over on the Friday before the race, and that was where it all split apart. There were groups everywhere but Bernie stayed calm, got into the right break and then played it perfectly at the finish."

For HTC-Columbia men's team, Eisel's win is the fourteenth victory of the 2010 season. Eisel will now go on to race in two more top northern Classics, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.Team HTC-Columbia press release